What I loved in Design last month | August 2024
Every month I compile everything interesting I interacted with as a brand designer. And I point out what I loved or didn’t like about them in terms of branding. I discuss duplicates, Pulse, Cornitos, Marvel and Coca-Cola collab, Diataal, Meal of the Moment and Decathlon in this edition. So, let’s dig deeper…?
Came across some interesting duplicates….
These were gifted to my mom by her students at the semi-government rural school she teaches in. I’m assuming the children there either don’t know that these are duplicates or the originals these are ripoffs of don’t reach there…. 😅
Either way, the prevalence of these is concerning. At the same time, the creativity involved in the ripping-off does bring a smile…. 🤣
How many of these can you guess…? Which original brand are these duplicates inspired from…? 🍫
How far can you push your identity…? 🤔
When you have one product that has given you way more success than you expected, it makes sense to use that success and introduce new products…. 💰
But while doing so, you have a difficult choice to make. Do you go with the iconic look of that successful product for your new and very different product…? Or do you create a new look for the new product since it is a very different product…? 🍬
If you are Pulse, it seems you can directly reuse the iconic look of your successful candy for your peanuts. Since it is working so well, I can’t really complain…. 🥜
Should you change your design language to fit a new target audience…? 🤔
Sometimes, yeah you can change your design language for a new target audience. But in most cases, it ain’t worth it. Especially if you have a good design language…. 😌
If you know me, you must know that I’m a huge fan of Cornitos’ branding. I loved the packaging of every product of theirs I’ve come across. But then I came across this…. 😶
Ignore the misprinting of the alignment of the logo. But from too many font styles to unbalanced shapes to conflicting hierarchy to bad contrast, nothing says Cornitos except the logo. Maybe it was an effort to make the target audience of this specific SKU comfortable, but I don’t think it was worth it…. Yeah, it still tastes great…. 😅
Who should you collab with as a brand…? 🤔
Coca-Cola and Marvel Entertainment have always been great with their collaborations. The Coca-Cola and Deadpool Vs Wolverine collaboration series ain’t an expectation. Coca-Cola has also always been mostly good with their design. This collab, once again, ain’t an exception to that…. 📺
Let’s see what’s working so well with this collaboration series:
1. Both Marvel and Coke have the same brand colour — red.
2. Both of them have a very similar target audience
3. Both do well at the movie theatres
4. Choosing to cut the Coca-Cola logo to have the Wolverine illustration look like a comic book panel pop-up gets extra points for creativity
So, cheers or blurp…? 🥤
Do you use your logo as a design element…? 🤔
Using a logo as a design element in a bigger design is a common strategy. But often it feels forced and boring. So, when you use this strategy, you gotta do it right…. 😌
For example, the way Meal of the Moment is doing it on their packaging. Having a bold element in the logo is working in their favour here. But even then, they are smart about how they use it…. 🤓
Instead of using the entire O as a single shape, they’ve broken it down into two parts. The black-coloured heart is acting as the hole while the rest of the O is acting as a container. Cool…. 👌
How should you brand your tote bag…? 🤔
If you are into sports or adventure, visiting a Decathlon warehouse is a great way to uplift your mood. Even if you don’t buy anything. You should also visit them if you are a designer because they have great branding…. ⚽️
I always carry an extra tote bag in the backpack I almost always carry. I do this to avoid buying carry bags, especially plastic ones. Because that’s a waste and bad for the environment. But when I saw the tote bag in the Decathlon store, I bought it even though I didn’t need it…. 💼
Decathlon Sports has their logo only as a small label on the entire bag. But you know it’s from Decathlon in a single glance. It has the iconic tagline in their brand typography on one side. And beautifully designed icons representing the different sports they cover on the other side. And they are all printed in the brand’s new blue colour…. No brand designer could resist this…. 🥺
Is following the standards worth it…? 🤔
I was shopping for groceries at a local store and came across this medicine. It took me a second glance to realize that it is a medicine. But it didn’t take me a microsecond to wanna check it. It breaks every notion of how you expect a medical pill packaging to look like. But that helps it stand out tall from its competitors in a saturated market…. 💊
Don’t be bound by expectations and norms. Break norms the right way and it will be worth it…. 🤓
That’s all for this edition. I’m compiling my experiences for this month and shall share them in the next month. In the meantime, you can check out the last compilation….
This is a self-taught multidisciplinary creative hooman and a veracious empath who loves branding. Besides strategic aesthetics, I take a keen interest in philosophy, psychology and exploring new experiences beyond the superficial…. 😁
You can book a consultation or mentorship session with me on ADPList…. 🤓
